New health building officially opens
Staff writer
Marion County’s new health department building, featuring a laboratory, a pharmacy, a reception room with large portraits of county residents, a drive-thru garage, and a plethora of storage rooms, officially opened Monday.
Roughly 40 attended a ribbon-cutting for the $1.6 million building at Main and Thorp Sts. in Marion.
Included were four of five county commissioners, Mayor Mike Powers, school superintendent Justin Wasmuth, and Natural Resources Conservation Service manager Matt Meyerhoff.
Health department director Krista Schneider thanked the community before welcoming the crowd inside.
A “dirty” storage room holds medical waste. Another contains general medical supplies. A third holds items to do with the Safe Kids Marion County program — helmets, booster seats, car seats, life vests, and even pool noodles.
“We had it all in a shipping container before,” Schneider said. “We had to walk off-site, grab the stuff, put it in a wagon, and pull it over.”
Safe Kids is meant to help families with low income. They can come to the department and receive items to protect their children.
Schneider said her favorite new room was a meeting room.
“We had to meet in our lobby before,” she said. “Now we get to meet every week as a team in the meeting room. Also, we’ve hosted other coalitions. I think Early Childhood Task Force is planning on meeting there, too.”